First TV show, now podcast for Arden
Before Jann Arden hits TV screens, she’ll be podcasting with Arlene Dickinson.
Perhaps this is the season for peak Jann Arden.
A few days after CTV announced that production had begun on Jann, a new comedy series that stars the singer, songwriter, broadcaster and author as a fictionalized version of herself, the iHeartRadio Canada Podcast Network announced that Arden will host a weekly business and lifestyle podcast with erstwhile Dragon Arlene Dickinson.
Arden, who released an album in March, These Are the Days, is on tour next month through November, although the closest she’ll get to Toronto is Oshawa on Oct. 11.
Jann, which shoots in Calgary, is due on TV as part of CTV’s 2018/19 schedule.
The Business of Life, which debuts Saturday, features longtime friends Arden and Dickinson talking about “entrepreneurship, motherhood, writing, relationships, and how to navigate through life’s ever-evolving challenges,” says the news release, with no topic off limits.
Dickinson is a venture capitalist and author who previously starred on CBC’s Dragons’ Den and now hosts her own CBC show, Under New Management. Debra Yeo
Macdonald is still apologizing
Norm Macdonald issued his latest in a string of apologies on Thursday for continuing to put his foot in his mouth. The Saturday Night Live veteran expressed regret on The View on Thursday morning for the Down syndrome comment he made on The Howard Stern Show the day before. That comment — “You’d have to have Down syndrome to not feel sorry” for harassment victims — came as Macdonald was elaborating on his earlier apology regarding statements he made about the #MeToo movement and victims of sexual misconduct. “The remark I made about people with Down syndrome was just a terrible, terrible thing for me to say,” Macdonald said Thursday.
Madconald’s comments in an earlier Hollywood Reporter interview about Roseanne Barr, disgraced comedian Louis C.K. and TV personality Chris Hardwick led to him being bumped from Tuesday’s Tonight Show.
The fate of his Netflix series, Norm Macdonald Has a Show, appears to be unaffected. Los Angeles Times
Weinstein gets handsy in video
A video of Harvey Weinstein aired on Sky News Wednesday showing him propositioning a woman who later accused him of rape and repeatedly touching her during what was supposed to have been a business meeting. Melissa Thompson, who sued Weinstein in June, said she made the recording while demonstrating video technology for Weinstein at his New York City office in 2011.
Thompson said Weinstein put his hand up her dress at one point. The video doesn’t show Weinstein’s hands but does show Thompson reacting with discomfort. The Associated Press
Charles Dutoit hired in Russia
Russia’s oldest philharmonic orchestra has hired a Swiss conductor who has been the target of accusations of sexual misconduct.
The Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra said in a statement Thursday that it has hired Charles Dutoitas its new principal guest conductor. He will start next May.
Three opera singers and a musician alleged in December that Dutoit, who then served as the musical director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, sexually assaulted them between 1985 and 2010. Several orchestras severed their ties with Dutoit following the reports. The Associated Press